Extremely precise atomic clocks are not just of theoretical interest; they could help detect impending volcanic eruptions or melting glaciers.
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We’re used to scientists telling us about the math and physics behind astronomical events. But what does studying space make us feel?
A series of charts shows how prevalent different mental illnesses are across the globe — but how we define them matters.
If light can’t be bent by electric or magnetic fields (and it can’t), then how do the Zeeman and Stark effects split atomic energy levels?
The Big Bang was hot, dense, uniform, and filled with matter and energy. Before that? There was nothing. Here’s how that’s possible.
Einstein’s relativity teaches us that time isn’t absolute, but passes relatively for everyone. So how do telescopes see back through time?
The major transformation in the where of modern workplaces is about to collide with a transformation in who is doing that work.
Why are the rest masses of fundamental particles related like this? When it comes to the nature of matter in the Universe, the Standard Model describes the known elementary particles perfectly […]
As far as we can tell, there’s no limit to how far it goes on; only a limit to how far we can see. Could the Universe truly be infinite?
If you said “with the Big Bang,” congratulations: that was our best answer as of ~1979. Here’s what we’ve learned in all the time since.
Inside the “out there” quest for a drug that would help doctors save lives before it’s too late.
More than any other nation, Japan tends to feel comfortable with the idea of humanoid robots entering the home.
The idea that “you” persist after death does not hold up to the current understanding of memory and identity.
Capacitors, acid batteries, and other methods of storing electric charges all lose energy over time. These gravity-fed batteries won’t.
Look out at a distant object, and you’re not seeing it as it is today. It’s size, brightness, and actual distance are all different.
For decades, theorists have been cooking up “theories of everything” to explain our Universe. Are all of them completely off-track?
New technology is helping physicists move forward in the search for the Theory of Everything.
The hyperloop would be a great idea for a completely flat planet. With topography and infrastructure, it’s a very different story.
About 2.5% of women and 2.2% of men in the U.S. meet the criteria for body dysmorphic disorder.
Argentina’s black market for cash is embracing crypto — but it’s not what crypto proponents expected.
In 1974, Hawking showed that black holes aren’t stable, but emit radiation and decay. Nearly 50 years later, it isn’t just for black holes.
Quantum communication offers a surer path to sending an interstellar message, as well as receiving one. But can we do it?
A small percentage of people who consume psychedelics experience strange lingering effects, sometimes years after they took the drug.
Like witchcraft, “racecraft” refers to a kind of magical thinking — one that treats race as if it were scientifically meaningful.
Fermilab’s TeVatron just released the best mass measurement of the W-boson, ever. Here’s what doesn’t add up.
Nostalgia is a happy remembrance of the past, yet it also leaves us feeling sad. Perhaps ironically, it can serve as a painkiller.
The laws of physics state that you can’t create or destroy matter without also creating or destroying an equal amount of antimatter. So how are we here?
Safety through technology is no bad thing—Nietzsche himself sought doctors and medicines throughout his life—but it can become pathological.
The great hope is that beyond the indirect, astrophysical evidence we have today, we’ll someday detect it directly. But what if we can’t?
If you want to understand what the Universe is, how it began, evolved, and will eventually end, astrophysics is the only way to go.